Hot Studio’s CEO, Maria Giudice, was profiled by BusinessWeek in an article about online community building called “Web Design Case Study: Community.” The article featured Hot Studio’s groundbreaking work on the Open Architecture Network (OAN), Once Upon A School, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).

The article summarized that when businesses look for a meaningful online presence, they want “community” sites and social networks to better connect with consumers. But Maria warned that online communities are not always appropriate. Her vision for successful community design—and web design as a whole—lies in research. That means that designers take a step back to question clients' expectations and needs.

When Hot Studio designed the OAN, research was key.

"Through research we realized that it wasn't a website they needed, it was an ecosystem of sites," said Maria. "There was a bigger vision that wasn't just about a community, but about accomplishing discrete goals for different people in a holistic way."

The article also focused on Maria’s leadership when navigating clients through the world of online communities. After Hot Studio has “understood the vision of the business,” Maria will often walk the client or even a project team through a series of questions around community. She helps them think through the process with questions like “Who will manage the site once it's built?” and “What tools will the community widely embrace?” It’s a reminder to clients not to expect a community to magically run itself.

For the OAN, Maria and Hot Studio acted as "caretakers" of the process, and became the liaison between Architecture for Humanity co-founder Cameron Sinclair, his team, and Sun Microsystems, who built the new system. Hot Studio had to be extremely flexible to allow for the site's design to evolve and adapt.

The article further delved into OAN’s success: “A year or so on, the network has 10,000 members working on some 1,500 projects in 200 countries.”

Other clients like author Dave Eggers and SFMOMA have come to Hot Studio with their own visions of community. A Hot Studio project for SFMOMA didn’t include a community site at all.

"People visiting the museum don't want to talk about paintings," Maria said.

Another project, Once Upon a School, an initiative spearheaded by Dave Eggers, encourages adults to volunteer to teach children to read. Once Upon A School didn’t require a customized community. Rather, the site needed a publishing model that would inspire people to post their stories and volunteer. For Maria, the designer's role remains to understand the vision and make a strategic recommendation based on that vision.

Read the article in BusinessWeek

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